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the figures or took any interest in making a fight for them. Kilgore, too, was very confused about the matter and Hill, although he said he would go along on this basis, could not have made much of a fight as no construction funds were finally included.

Bridges said confidentially that he thought Thye had been very difficult, as Thye offered five amendments to various parts of Thye's own subcommittee appropriations recommendations, and the whole matter was evidently overridden by objections to an additional construction fund from Russell. No really vigorous fight was made. Bridges said, “It could have been done without a fight,” but evidently he had too many fish to fry to make it for us. It was sad.

The Senate came out with seven million additional for grants-in-aid for the five Institutes, or a total of only 72 million dollars. The Senate and House conference agreed on only 3 million 375 thousand more than the House had voted, or a total of 68 million for the five Institutes. It brought the funds for research up to the total of the Truman budget requests for fiscal '53, but certainly it was a hard struggle.

When I went to see Bridges after the full committee markup, he told me that he felt that only a bill outlining the matching grants provision would make it possible to get funds for the construction of research facilities. My heart sank at this, as I knew how difficult it was to get a bill of any kind through